Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak to a bill that I am reintroducing, being cosponsored by my colleague MARK BEGICH from Alaska, to resolve a land conveyance dispute in Northwest Alaska, the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act.

Shortly after Alaska became a State in 1959, Alaska selected lands near Salmon Lake, a major fishery resource in the Bering Straits Region of Northwest Alaska. In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to resolve aboriginal land claims throughout the 49th State. In that act Congress created 12 regional native corporations in Alaska, providing the corporations with $966 million and the right to select 44 million acres of land in return for giving up claims to their traditional lands. The land and money was to go to make the corporations profitable to provide benefits to their shareholders, the native inhabitants of Alaska. The Bering Straits Native Corporation, one of those 12 regional corporations, promptly selected lands in the Salmon Lake region overlapping State selections promised the State at the time that Alaska joined the Union in 1959. The corporation selected the area around the lake because the waters upstream and downstream from the lake are a prime fishery spawning area and contains fisheries resources of significance to Alaska Natives, in addition to offering land suitable for a variety of recreational activities.

For the past 40 years there have been conflicts over the conveyances, delaying land from going to the corporation, harming the economic and cultural benefits of the corporation model for all Native shareholders, and complicating land and wildlife management issues between Federal agencies and the State of Alaska. Starting in 1994, but accelerating in 1997, talks began among the State, Federal agencies and native corporations and towns in the region, located north of Nome--Salmon Lake itself is located 38 miles north of Nome--to reach a consensus on land uses in the region. Those talks reached agreement on June 1, 2007, with a resolution that satisfied all parties. This seemingly non-controversial legislation will implement the land management regime in the area and finally complete the conveyance of ANCSA lands to the Bering Straits Native Corporation--giving the corporation title after surveys to the last of the 145,728 acres it was promised by Section 14(h)(8) of ANCSA nearly 4 decades ago.

By this bill the Corporation will gain conveyance to 1,009 acres in the Salmon Lake area, 6,132 acres at Windy Cove, northwest of Salmon Lake, and 7,504 acres at Imuruk Basin, on the north shore of Imuruk Basin, a water body north of Windy Cove. In return the Corporation relinquishes rights to another 3,084 acres at Salmon Lake to the Federal Government, the government then giving part of the land to the State of Alaska for it to maintain a key airstrip near the lake. The Federal Bureau of Land Management also retains ownership and administration of a 9-acre campground at the outlet of Salmon Lake, which provides road accessible public camping opportunities from the Nome-Teller Highway. The agreement also retains public access to BLM managed lands in the Kigluaik Mountain Range. In return for the trade, the Federal Government gains other lands from the State.

The bill fully protects recreation and subsistence uses in the area, while providing the Corporation with access to recreational-tourism sites of importance to its shareholders and which might some day produce revenues for the Corporation. The agreement has prompted no known environmental group concerns and seems to be the classic ``win-win-win'' solution that all sides should be congratulated for crafting.

After this bill was introduced in late winter 2009, only support for its provisions was voiced by the public and the Administration and Federal agencies during a Senate hearing held by the Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 8, 2009. After that hearing, the bill was unanimously approved by the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee on December 16, 2009; and it was awaiting passage at the end of the 111th Congress. A nearly identical bill was approved by the full House of Representatives on July 1, 2010 by a unanimous vote of 410-0. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates last year, it would have ``negligible'' costs to the Federal Government during a 10-year scoring window, and it actually will likely reduce Federal outlays since the land's transfer will reduce Federal Bureau of Land Management administrative costs.

Passage of this act is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the Alaska Lands Conveyance Acceleration Act that this body passed 7 years ago that was intended to help settle all outstanding land conveyance issues in Alaska by 2009--the 50th anniversary of Alaska Statehood. While the original agreement/extension covering the land exchange among the Federal Government, the State of Alaska and Bering Straits Native Corporation expired in late 2010, it has been extended once again by all parties to give Congress additional time to ratify the land exchange's terms. Ratification will largely complete the land conveyance process in Northwest Alaska.

I hope that Congress this year, before the latest deadline passes, will quickly pass this legislation. I particularly hope that the land swap is ratified quickly since December 18, 2011 will mark the 40th anniversary of ANCSA's passage. The shareholders of the Bering Straits region have waited 40 years to finally receive the land and economic benefits promised to them when they relinquished their aboriginal land claims. It is only just that they not be made to wait any longer to enjoy the full benefits of the claims settlement act. This bill is also very important for residents of Nome who utilize the area for recreation and subsistence purposes and for all Alaska Natives who live in the Bering Straits Region.

END

Source